NBA Live Series - NBA Live

The NBA Live series was originally released for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and SNES with NBA Live 95. The naming was changed from utilizing the last two digits of the year to the entire year number from 2000–2005, but returned to the original naming convention with NBA Live 06.

The Create-A-Player feature was not available in the 1995 versions of the game, but have been a mainstay since NBA Live 96. NBA Live 98 in 1997 was the last NBA Live game for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and the SNES. NBA Live 98 also was the first NBA Live series game to support 3Dfx graphic cards. Only first generation Voodoo and Voodoo Rush cards were officially supported.

Starting from NBA Live 2000, the series featured NBA Live Legend All-Stars Teams, that included some biggest names from five decades (50s to 90s). These teams could be used instantly, but to use the players as regular players (e.g. traded, played on regular NBA Teams) they needed to be unlocked. Along the series, some of the rosters were changed due to many reasons as Michael Jordan was on the 90's team through 2004 and then, Spud Webb and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Tom Chambers were added to the rosters in NBA Live 06.

NBA Live 2005 brought the addition of the Freestyle Air, NBA All-Star Weekend which includes the Rookie Challenge, Three Point Shootout, Slam Dunk Contest, and the NBA All-Star Game, and Freestyle Challenge which 2 players or more can play the Three Point Shootout or the Slam Dunk Contest.

NBA Live 06 was released on September 26, 2005 for the Xbox 360, Xbox, Nintendo GameCube, PC, PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 2 Mobile. It features Dwyane Wade as the cover athlete.

NBA Live 07 was released for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, PC, PlayStation Portable, and the Xbox360. The major new feature for this year was an evolution of the freestyle superstars system. Tracy McGrady of the Rockets is the cover athlete.

NBA Live 08 was released October 2, 2007 for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360, Wii and PC and Gilbert Arenas is the cover athlete. This was the first entry in the series to feature national teams (under FIBA's license) and the last edition of NBA Live to be available on Windows.

NBA Live 09 was released on October 7, 2008 and Tony Parker is the cover athlete. The game is available for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360, and Wii. It features the first concept of daily updates changing stuff like tendencies, rosters, and hot-cold streaks. The PS2 game featured Dynamic DNA, Be a Pro Mode which you create a player and put him in the NBA (Be a Pro is also in EA Sports NHL and FIFA series and its similar to Madden's Superstar Mode), a deeper practice mode, expanded FIBA world championships, Hot Spots 2.0 and an improved dynasty mode.

NBA Live 10 was released on October 6, 2009 and the cover athlete was Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic. It is currently the latest of the NBA Live series.

NBA Live 13 was to be released in Fall 2012 but was canceled.